


The Other Mother

by arpita



Category: Baahubali (Movies), Baahubali- The Beginning, Baahubali- The Conclusion
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 23:29:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19239274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arpita/pseuds/arpita
Summary: Sanga doesn't find any comfort in the Maahishmati Palace after her foster son, Shivudu takes on his throne as Mahendra Baahubali.





	The Other Mother

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MayavanavihariniHarini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayavanavihariniHarini/gifts), [Inkn1ght1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkn1ght1/gifts), [Ratna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ratna/gifts), [avani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avani/gifts), [Medhasree](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medhasree/gifts).



> 1\. The representations made herein are fictional, and based on the scribbler's perspective of events.
> 
> 2\. Please drop in all your love, hate, whatever you feel like, with open arms.

_There is something grossly amiss about this place,_ a thought crossed her mind almost in passing as Sanga tried to accustom herself to her new, royal environs. In all her attempts to align herself with this reality, that the son she had brought up was a King of magnanimous proportions in spirit, she was still unsuccessful. 

Not that Shivu, - _No, she chides herself, Mahendra Baahubali, for he wasn’t her sweet, naive, Shiva anymore,_ \- had changed overnight as he took his destined Regal mantle. Mahendra, - _how foreign that name sounded, even on her lips_ ,- earnestly endeavoured to make her feel at home, being her ever sweet, wide-eyed child with an inexplicable zest for scaling the Jalparvat. 

“You are my Mother, Ma!” he says when she had gathered all her belongings in a neat bundle to take leave of the Maahishmati Palace, along with her husband. His childlike stubbornness was still in place, as was the innocence of his eyes, and yet-

- _Sanga saw Mahendra Baahubali instead of Shivudu._

“I shall always be my Shivu’s Mother,”- she ran a hand on The King’s head. - “But this King isn’t my child to speak of.”

She had seen tears in his eyes as she had smiled into them. They hadn’t rolled down yet, but had welled up enough to make their presence felt.

“Stay, sister,” The Queen Mother held her hand. So different from her, she was, Sanga wondered when she cast a glance at Devasena’s hands. Calloused, and roughened from all her years in that despicable cage in the Maahishmati courtyard, they seemed to retain a haecceity akin to hers. 

That softness, still visible in all her scars, Sanga knew it. She had always known it, ever since Shiva had come to her. 

“He looks like a God, Your Highness.” she smilingly says. “He _is_ a God.” she elaborates, looking at the Queen Mother with a reverence that she had for the Goddesses worshipped by their little clan in Amboli.

“And, I am human. Divine comforts do not provide us the solace our frugality does, My Queen.” 

Devasena sighs, in a tired, withdrawn manner. Her honorific from Sanga doesn’t sound appropriate. She had brought Mahendra up. She was his mother by all means. 

_As she herself was his mother in name and spirit_.

“Sanga,”- Devasena holds on to her hand even tightly. “Your Shiva needs you, as much as my Mahendra needs me.”

A smile graces Sanga’s lips. 

“My Shiva has grown up into Mahendra Baahubali!” she proclaims, proudly. “And, I am the mortal that raised an incarnation of Rudra Himself!”

Mahendra grips her in a tight embrace as she says those words. His -foster- father looks on, as he beams. He says nothing, for he fears, his exhilaration at his Son’s ascension might choke his voice into a voiceless babble.

"Please," he pleads, "Don't leave."

Sanga feels her Shivudu holding her. She has her will to stay with this boy.

_But then, once the embrace broke, he would become Mahendra again. Her son would grow up the moment he left her arms._

Thus, she holds on to this memory for as long as she can. Her life in the Maahishmati palace wasn't really the life she had known. Those comforts weren't hers, though Shiva's warmth was. 

"We must leave, Sanga." His father says. 

"Let me go, Shivu." Sanga lovingly releases her boy to look at Mahendra.

"I shall consider myself a successful Mother if you do not forget the Land that raised you." she says. 

"Never, Mother." Sanga's resolution has its long-desired effect after long, as Shiva lets her go, albeit reluctantly.


End file.
